Lists. I have a love-hate relationship with them. Right now I hate them...but they might be the only thing that saves me. This is "birthday week" at the D household which means I need a lot of lists to keep my sanity. There's the party supply list, the grocery list, the chore list, the gift list, the guest list...is this a wedding suddenly? :)
I haven't started a list yet. Well, I did make a guest list (obviously) prior to sending out the bday party invites. We're keeping it JUST CLOSE FAMILY which is nice & frustrating at the same time. It will be nice to keep the party small(er) and have less to do to prepare, however, I know there are lots of people who would want to attend and who I would want to attend who don't make that short list of "Close Family". Steven & I both have large(r) families so it adds up quickly. I basically just took MD's baptism guest list and copied it...which means we're looking at around 28 people (31 if you count Steven, MD and I) coming over for the party.
The nice difference between the baptism and the 1st bday party is that his baptism was in November (FREEEEZING COLD!) so we were all crammed in the house with a colicky baby after church. Hopefully the weather will hold out and we will be able to utilize our deck to keep the traffic flowing in the house this weekend
I had one major point of contention with Party City yesterday. I wasn't going to shop at Party City for MD's birthday, simply because I think they are overpriced and sell cheap products. I put off purchasing a lot of decorations because I was trying to find the best deal around for the best quality. That blew up in my face. I was going to print some of the decorations myself, that ended up not working either. Sooo I found myself back at square one and headed over to Party City. Their website showed me TONS of cowboy themed decorations so I figured it'd be a quick shopping trip for a few things.
I got to the store, and couldn't find a SINGLE cowboy item (except a hat in the costume section). I walked up to the nearest employee and asked where their party decorations for a "cowboy party" were.
Well, we don't really have cowboy stuff.
You don't have ANY cowboy stuff?
Well, we have Toy Story. That's about as "cowboy" has we have.
UNREAL.
So then I had to get creative (not my strong suit). What colors are cowboy decorations? My thoughts were (and are) red, blue & brown. Works for me. So I bought plates, napkins, forks and ordered some balloons in those colors. It will work.
So now there's more lists...and schedules.
I took Thursday & Friday off this week which is really exciting, except now I have a schedule for both days. Well, not really Thursday. Thursday is MD's actual birthday so I wanted to spend the whole day with him. Steven will hopefully be getting of work early so we can have lots of playtime/park time/opening presents/eating cake/etc family time on Thursday. Friday MD has his 1 year old doctor appointment (SHOTS!) and his first haircut..which is obviously due:
I haven't started a list yet. Well, I did make a guest list (obviously) prior to sending out the bday party invites. We're keeping it JUST CLOSE FAMILY which is nice & frustrating at the same time. It will be nice to keep the party small(er) and have less to do to prepare, however, I know there are lots of people who would want to attend and who I would want to attend who don't make that short list of "Close Family". Steven & I both have large(r) families so it adds up quickly. I basically just took MD's baptism guest list and copied it...which means we're looking at around 28 people (31 if you count Steven, MD and I) coming over for the party.
The nice difference between the baptism and the 1st bday party is that his baptism was in November (FREEEEZING COLD!) so we were all crammed in the house with a colicky baby after church. Hopefully the weather will hold out and we will be able to utilize our deck to keep the traffic flowing in the house this weekend
I had one major point of contention with Party City yesterday. I wasn't going to shop at Party City for MD's birthday, simply because I think they are overpriced and sell cheap products. I put off purchasing a lot of decorations because I was trying to find the best deal around for the best quality. That blew up in my face. I was going to print some of the decorations myself, that ended up not working either. Sooo I found myself back at square one and headed over to Party City. Their website showed me TONS of cowboy themed decorations so I figured it'd be a quick shopping trip for a few things.
I got to the store, and couldn't find a SINGLE cowboy item (except a hat in the costume section). I walked up to the nearest employee and asked where their party decorations for a "cowboy party" were.
Well, we don't really have cowboy stuff.
You don't have ANY cowboy stuff?
Well, we have Toy Story. That's about as "cowboy" has we have.
UNREAL.
So then I had to get creative (not my strong suit). What colors are cowboy decorations? My thoughts were (and are) red, blue & brown. Works for me. So I bought plates, napkins, forks and ordered some balloons in those colors. It will work.
So now there's more lists...and schedules.
I took Thursday & Friday off this week which is really exciting, except now I have a schedule for both days. Well, not really Thursday. Thursday is MD's actual birthday so I wanted to spend the whole day with him. Steven will hopefully be getting of work early so we can have lots of playtime/park time/opening presents/eating cake/etc family time on Thursday. Friday MD has his 1 year old doctor appointment (SHOTS!) and his first haircut..which is obviously due:
In the midst of all of that we need to buy MD's first pair of Stride Rite shoes (the cheap-o brands aren't working very well for this whole "exploring walking" concept) clean the house, decorate, get the dogs groomed, grocery shop (and prepare food). IT WILL GET DONE! :)
In other news...I did end up finding an awesome buy at the Munchkin Market (well, not just one, but I have one FAVORITE). This Parent's Magazine Hog Wild Scooter is seriously the bomb. Not only is it a riding toy, but it's got a bunch of fun built-in toys that MD likes to play with when he's not "riding" the scooter around" (Side note: MD does not "ride" the scooter. He insists on standing behind it, reaching his arms all the way over the scooter, and pushing it while walking...we'll work on it)
In other news...I did end up finding an awesome buy at the Munchkin Market (well, not just one, but I have one FAVORITE). This Parent's Magazine Hog Wild Scooter is seriously the bomb. Not only is it a riding toy, but it's got a bunch of fun built-in toys that MD likes to play with when he's not "riding" the scooter around" (Side note: MD does not "ride" the scooter. He insists on standing behind it, reaching his arms all the way over the scooter, and pushing it while walking...we'll work on it)
I was able to score a couple other deals at the sale. I found a musical book, a big truck that MD can push around the floor, and some random clothing items (which included a long-sleeved Vikings onesie that fits him perfectly and was only $2). The sale was basically the day after Thanksgiving vibe with new moms. Chaotic, but fine. They didn't have as many large items as I expected, which was the only bummer.
Our other big event this week: MD's first swimming lesson! I signed him up for the infant class (technically it's for 6 months-2 years old), and I'm really excited to see how he likes it. It's every Wednesday evening and only for 1/2 hour each time (they obviously know the attention span of that age group). I have a feeling he's going to love it. It goes for 6 weeks and leads right up into our trip to Florida which will be perfect because MD will be used to having fun and playing in the pool and then we will go on vacation and get to play in the pool all day every day :)
Happy Birthday Week to YOU! :)
-Laurel
Our other big event this week: MD's first swimming lesson! I signed him up for the infant class (technically it's for 6 months-2 years old), and I'm really excited to see how he likes it. It's every Wednesday evening and only for 1/2 hour each time (they obviously know the attention span of that age group). I have a feeling he's going to love it. It goes for 6 weeks and leads right up into our trip to Florida which will be perfect because MD will be used to having fun and playing in the pool and then we will go on vacation and get to play in the pool all day every day :)
Happy Birthday Week to YOU! :)
-Laurel